Wimbledon: Djokovic’s epic triumph
Last October, the All England Club decided it was time for Wimbledon to introduce a tie-break if the deciding set of a match reached 12-12, said Stuart Fraser in The Times. Had it not done so, the final between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer “could still be playing now”. But this thrilling match – at four hours and 57 minutes, the longest final in Wimbledon history – ended with Djokovic claiming a 16th grand slam title. It was “almost a 21st” for Federer: had the 37-year-old converted either of his championship points, he would have become the oldest men’s singles player in the open era to win a grand slam title. Instead, Djokovic recovered – the first man to “make a successful comeback after staring down the barrel” since Bob Falkenburg, 71 years ago.
Djokovic was actually “the worse player for four of the five sets”, said Sean Ingle in The Guardian. Federer “served better, volleyed better, returned better, hit 40 more winners and won 14 more points”. But Djokovic, “tennis’s greatest wall”, just wouldn’t budge. He was like the superhero Plastic Man, “whose malleable body allows him to stretch to impossible lengths”. It mattered not a jot that the crowd was united behind Federer: Djokovic is made of such stern stuff that each time he heard them chant “Roger”, he convinced himself that they were, in fact, cheering for him. He is now just four grand slam titles behind Federer’s record haul of 20, and two behind Rafael Nadal. And, at 32, “he knows that time is on his side”. For Federer, defeat must “hurt like the dickens”, said Matthew Lambert in the Daily Mail. But it was still a glorious victory over “old father time and sporting conventional wisdom”. A 37-year-old is not supposed to be able to do what Federer did on Sunday: he remained “neck-and-neck with one of the greatest athletes on the planet”. Djokovic ran 5.6km; Federer 5.81km.
Serena Williams is a month younger than Federer, said Oliver Holt in The Mail on Sunday. And in her straight-sets loss to Simona Halep, in the women’s singles final, time seemed to be catching up with her. She looked immobile, uncertain. She is just one win away from matching Margaret Court’s record of 24 grand slam singles – but she has now lost the last three slam finals she has played. Unlike Federer, Williams has lost her aura: “the younger players are no longer intimidated by her”. But no one could have beaten Halep in this form, said Nick Pitt in The Sunday Times. The world No. 4 only needed 56 minutes to seal her second grand slam title; she made just three unforced errors. “Have we seen a performance of greater merit in a women’s final at Wimbledon? Not in living memory.”